Hello OBEY players, experienced and new.

I'm Darthcaboose, and I am here to talk to you today about ways to up your OBEY game skills.

OBEY is, at its core, a game of social manipulation, power, backstabbing, death, and lying. Lots and lots of lying. Like you wouldn't believe. Mastery of all these aspects is critical for victory!

There's only one way to win a game of OBEY. And that is to get to the money limit (typically ¢10,000) first.

Victory does not come by always trying to be in the Robosaru (though that certainly helps). It's not by creating a harmonious utopia where all bunnies can pursue their free-time hobbies with persecution by some higher authority. It's certainly not by blowing up every single bunny you see.

It's just about getting to the ¢10,000 mark.

How you get there. Well, that's up to you. But this guide tries to point out how to read the current game state and how best to act. More directly, it's what sort of role or personality you should adopt given the current game state.

We'll split this guide into two parts: Robosaru and Bunny. Each section will explain how to act when you are in each role.

NOTE: You may certainly have success stories by acting differently than what is mentioned here. The social game space available in this game could allow for a wide variety of choices here. However, against competitive players, you may have a hard time, say, keeping bunnies in order when you're very close to winning.

EDIT: Since the writing of this article, quite a few things in OBEY have changed! Servers now typically start with some Uranium right at the drop-zone. Additionally, servers now have a penalty to the Robosaru for getting subverted in the form of a bunch of money being dropped in the drop zone. Bunnies who collect this money actually collect it from the previous Robosaru! If you suspect you are about to get subverted soon, it may actually be in your best interest to shoot all the obeying bunnies near the drop-zone (money takes 15 17 seconds or so to disappear; if there's no one at the drop-zone to pick up the money, this penalty is effectively negated!).

EDIT 2: Power Plants are now a critical feature of the game. As Robosaru, you must keep a close eye on the Power Plant, for it controls your passive income. Once you start approaching first place as the Robosaru, you can use the Power Plant as an effective bargaining chip; electing to turn it off to appease bunnies. Not only does this prevent you from losing money upon subversion, but your passive income increases over time given how long you've reigned in the Robosaru. You can use this tactic to 'hide' how well you are doing until a later time. As a Bunny, look for opportunities to mess with the Power Plant. When dissenting, you may find it quite useful to place valuable items onto the exhaust port of the Power Plant. The Robosaru must then decide whether to shoot the items off to collect their passive income, or leave the items there at the expense of their passive income, or convince a bunny to take the items off.

Alright, so you've taken control of the Almighty Robosaru. Don't let the powe go to your head! (Or, you know, do so, because you do have the chaingun)

How should you act?

The first thing you want to do (ideally before you enter the Robosaru) is hit the TAB key and take a look at the current scores.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Self, where am I on the scoreboard with respect to other players?

2. Self, how far ahead/behind am I with respect to the player in first/second place?

Based on your answers, and how experienced bunny players will react to the current situation, there are roughly THREE different personalities you can adopt.

BENEVOLENT ROBOSARU

You should adopt this role if you are nowhere near first place, but if the other bunnies are not very close to winning. The other bunnies, knowing that you are not in first place, will be less likely to be disruptive and more willing to help push you along while helping themselves through collar income and Auto-Pay money. You should reciprocate in kind by keeping them occupied and give them things to do. Try and encourage bunnies to tell you information about the player in first place (whom you should keep shooting him while the dropship has less than 30 seconds to arrival; to avoid crashes).

Eventually, this first place bunny will get angry and try to crash the dropship. Feel free to turn into Bunnycidal ROBOSARU mode (see below). You typically ain't gonna buy a new dropship. Let someone else do it (just not whoever is in first place).

Benevolence does not necessarily mean setting the Auto-Pay to the maximum of ¢100. You can successfully argue that you're not so far ahead to warrant giving out that much money. If bunnies push back at the lower rates, feel free to 'give up' and increase it once to appease them.

Buying laser walls (to set up not near the drop box), sensors, and mines to place around the map are great ways to distract bunnies who are relatively complacent. Buying batteries too is also great, because it will allow you to chain-spam the sentries and secure your position as Robosaru!

Acting incompetent while in this mode is great, because a lot of the very helpful bunnies will stop doing shenanigans to help you out. You'll also typically get a lot more bunnies running off the grid if it looks like you don't know what you're doing. Use this to your advantage to shoot at any of them making a run for it (despite your benevolence, no less!).

TOUGH, BUT (almost always) FAIR ROBOSARU

Once you enter the ¢5,000 - ¢6,000 range and are in the lead, it's time to ramp things up a bit. Smart bunnies will expect Auto-Pay to be maxed out. You will need to keep an eye on the bunnies a lot more, and GREATLY decrease your tolerance for shenanigans. For example: If you see a bunny running in and out of your field of vision at the edge of the Feed Box / Drop Ship Zone, you should just shoot the bunny before you lose sight of him. Don't go too crazy though, you want the obedient bunnies to keep what they're doing.

Bunnies who ask for unreasonable requests will usually get shot at. Bunnies who take too long obeying orders should be shot at. Ideally right when the dropship is at the 30 second mark, but otherwise, do it then and there.

You should anticipate losing the dropship here. That's fine. Just keep an eye out for corpses at the drop-box (hopefully, you bought a lot of missiles to help out here!). Don't buy another one unless you're sure you can corral all the bunnies back together. If the Corpses starts getting out of hand, removing yourself from the Robosaru by typing "/kill" can be a good way to avoid taking too much of a loss.

BUNNYCIDAL ROBOSARU

Ideally when you hit the ¢8,000 - ¢9,000, or if there's a bunny who is very close to winning. No one is going to help you win. Wait until the bunnies turn in the Uranium and murder them before they collect their Auto-Pay. That, or quickly turn it down when a Bunny is about to turn in. Kill everything! Laugh loudly. Do a funny voice while you're doing it. Lie about your intentions to buy a dropship. Promise to buy more non-Uranium things when the dropship comes in. Apologize for killing all the bunnies, say you saw a bunny running off and were concerned about the lack of discipline.

Just don't get Corpsed. At this point, keeping all the bunnies in the dropship is good. Some of them will have to give up score to crash it. This is good. You want the dropship to crash (so whoever takes over has to buy a new one to establish order, keeping you further ahead).

Seriously, you need to laugh a lot to make this work. Imagine being Rambo. Or being Mad Max in that apocalyptic landscape. Seriously. Have fun with the gun.

Well, there's only ever one ROBOSARU player. So, most likely, you'll be adopting one of these roles here.

Much like in the Robosaru, you want to ask yourself the following questions.

1. Self, how far ahead is the Robosaru player from everyone else?

2. Self, where am I on the scoreboard?

Once you've asked yourselves these questions, it should be somewhat obvious for what needs to be done, and what the best role to adopt is.

OBEDIENT BUNNY

Super helpful bunny that does absolutely no wrong (maybe a bit of corpsing if it's very easy to do). I'll do this if I'm close to first place and the Robosaru player is nowhere near first place. You can also do this if you're not close to first place and a lot of players are fighting for the Robosaru. Be sure to keep your collar on. Ask to turn up the autopay to the maximum. Give advice to lower the autopay when other competing bunnies are close by ("Hey, there's some scrap someone's trying to turn in, quick, lower the autopay!").

Snitch like crazy! Use a louder voice on the microphone to get the Robosaru's attention that something bad is happening. Ask for payment when the bad bunnies get caught.

Close to winning the game, I will just stop talking to reduce any suspicion of me winning. Be sure to verbally argue with those who try to point that out. Nothing is worse than a Robosaru having to filter differing messages to figure out the truth.

Note: Only be super-obedient if the Robosaru player is nowhere near winning. This changes very quickly if new management walks in...

NOT-SO-OBEDIENT BUNNY

This is quite similar to the Obedient Bunny, but this is against Robosaru players who are just barely in first place. You'll want to slow down your work a bit. Place weapons and batteries in the Robosaru to siphon money off of him, while perhaps 'misplacing' Uranium in the water or on hills. Work to set up Corpse factories in hidden areas.

You should absolutely not be snitching here. If you see a non-first place Bunny run off, just leave him be. You'd prefer a lower-scoring player to take over the Robosaru so you can go back to being an Obedient Bunny, and keep your win up!

VIVE LA REVOLUTION BUNNY

For when you're nowhere near the top and the Robosaru player is clearly in first place or close to winning. This is full on dissent mode. You should be completely unhelpful. Lie about where you are. Lie about the items you're putting in. Lie about bunnies about to subvert the Robosaru. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. Be confusing. If you're under the Robosaru's spotlight, move non-Uranium items to the Feed Box to 'drain' money from the Robosaru player. Hide Uranium and Scrap out of sight. Corpse as hard as you can! Sit behind the Feed Box with your collar on and hope it gets detonated (to generate a corpse).

If you must crash the dropship, do so with Uranium and ask for other bunnies help (it's expensive to do it by yourself!).

Try and become Robosaru!